Right Stuff: State should approve AAMC for cardiac care

If you're in Anne Arundel County and have a heart attack, the Anne Arundel Medical Center can open your blocked artery. But if you need cardiac surgery, you must be flown to Baltimore or Washington. When minutes count, that trip can take hours.

To remedy this situation, more than a year ago, AAMC applied for state permission to open a cardiac surgery program in partnership with Johns Hopkins University. This request, however, has been tied up in a bigger political game.

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To pursue its plans, AAMC must get the Maryland Health Care Commission to approve what is known as a Certificate of Need. On its face, AAMC's application looks like a slam dunk.

AAMC is one of the most modern facilities in the state with a track record of providing cost-effective, high-quality care. And its service area includes not only Anne Arundel County but Eastern Shore communities as well as parts of Calvert and Prince George's Counties.

Currently, five of Maryland's 10 cardiac surgery programs are in the Baltimore area and three are outside of Washington (which has four more). That distribution made sense decades ago, but, considering population growth and shifts within the state, it now is outmoded — as is the idea that cardiac patients in the AAMC service area (and their families) should be forced to travel to Baltimore or the Washington area for care.

Close on the heels of AAMC's application for a cardiac surgery program came one from Baltimore Washington Medical Center in Glen Burnie. While BWMC's application has merit, its close proximity to Baltimore begs the question if that area needs a sixth such program.

It's understandable that AAMC opposes BWMC's application and vice versa. After all, if there is only going to be one cardiac surgery center in the county, each wants the honor. The Prince George's Regional Medical Center also entered the fray, objecting to AAMC's application, but not, however, BWMC's. And, here's where it gets very interesting.

PGRMC wants to replace its decrepit facility in Cheverly, which has been on state-funded life support for years, with a $650 million Taj Mahal of hospitals in Largo. Apparently, its plan is so grandiose that the chairman of the Maryland Health Care Commission told PGRMC to scale it back.

This new mega-facility will be part of the University of Maryland Medical System, which includes BWMC, along with cardiac surgery programs at St. Joseph's Medical Center, and, of course, the University of Maryland Medical Center. A cardiac surgery facility at AAMC, therefore, would reduce its current "market share" for cardiac surgery — and threaten the scale of the Largo project.

Could, therefore, BWMC's application, obstruction and opposition to AAMC's application really be a stalking horse meant by UMMS to justify the mega-facility in Prince Georges County? Could it also be a play by UMMS to limit the reach of Johns Hopkins?

Politics is never far from anything in Maryland, and this situation is no different. County Executive Steve Schuh and Mayor Michael Pantelides wrote to the Health Care Commission urging approval of AAMC's application. And State Senate President Thomas V. "Mike" Miller thinks the future PGRMC should be even bigger.

As Baby Boomers age and populations increase in the AAMC service area there is a growing need for a cardiac surgery program in Anne Arundel County, and AAMC is well positioned to meet it.

Health care isn't meant to be a zero-sum game. It should be about providing high quality care that is accessible and cost-effective — AAMC meets all three. Sadly, however, it looks like some people are putting power and politics above patients. The Maryland Health Care Commission should continue to put patients first and approve AAMC's Certificate of Need immediately.